Odette Cancer Program Impact Report 2025

A message of gratitude from Sunnybrook

As I recently marked my one-year anniversary as Chief of Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Program, I continue to be in awe of our high-performing team that drives our excellence in research and care. You, our donors, are part of that team with your generosity and commitment to trailblazing cancer care.

This year, your support enabled us to appoint Dr. Nicole Look Hong
as the Marion C. Soloway Chair in Breast Cancer Surgery, and award Dr. Joan Lipa the Chair in Breast Reconstruction Surgery.

As you will read in this report, donor generosity is helping us transform our innovative equipment to deliver more personalized and precise treatment. After years in development, we recently treated the first patient with RayStation, our advanced radiation treatment
planning system.

We are also pleased to share more about a donor-funded trial for women with high-risk ovarian and breast cancer. Early donor support helped secure a major grant, and now another research team is using biopsies from this study to further our understanding of tumour biology.

On behalf of our patients and families, thank you for your generosity and your trust in our work.

Together, we are trailblazing cancer care, advancing research and training the next generation of practitioners and leaders – all to improve outcomes and change the trajectory of a cancer diagnosis for even more patients and their families.

Dr. Monika Krzyzanowska, MD, FRCPC, FASCO
Chief, Odette Cancer Program

New system revolutionizes treatment planning

Generous donor support enabled the Odette Cancer Program to implement RayStation this year. The new radiation treatment planning system is already transforming our patients’ experience and the workflow for the teams who serve them.

In March 2025, the Sunnybrook team started clinical implementation of the RayStation radiation treatment planning system, which provides increased precision and greater efficiency.

This leading-edge technology combines unique features such as unmatched adaptive therapy capabilities and algorithms that optimize treatment planning for multiple types of radiotherapy. RayStation’s compatibility with a wide range of treatment infrastructure allows for a single control centre for treatment planning while also extending the usage and life cycle of Sunnybrook’s existing equipment.

Radiation Oncology Chief Dr. Arjun Sahgal says the introduction of RayStation is already streamlining treatment and allowing the team to adapt treatment plans faster and treat more patients sooner.

Donor support enabled the Odette Cancer Program to acquire the first upgrade for two existing Halcyon Linacs. By adding the power of AI and advanced imaging to the Halcyon Linacs, Sunnybrook is now personalizing care for even more patients and delivering faster adapted treatments with a precision and responsiveness beyond any other CT-based tool.

“With the new upgraded Halcyon units we can deliver treatment in seconds rather than minutes, and adjust a patient’s treatment in real time – making radiation more precise and more effective, all while providing a better experience for our patients,” Dr. Sahgal says.

Testing a new therapeutic approach

Thanks to donor support, a research team at the Odette Cancer Program led a study to uncover new treatment approaches for people living with aggressive forms of ovarian and breast cancers. The study leveraged strengths across research platforms, including clinical application led by Dr. Helen MacKay and preclinical research led by David Andrews, PhD.

The team treated six patients and confirmed that the piloted drug combination is safe and tolerable.

By establishing 3D organoids, laboratory models of tumours generated from biopsy samples, researcher sought to understand how and why the treatments affect cancer cells.

The team incorporated the highly positive qualitative feedback of the lived experiences of patients into the research, establishing a model for future studies.

“The medication was well tolerated and the patients reported a good quality of life during treatment,” Dr. MacKay says.

Notably, the provisional information gathered from this donor-funded research was promising enough to attract a five-year, $6.5-million Breakthrough Team Grant from the Canadian Cancer Society to continue the research of ovarian cancer dormancy and recurrence. The team is preparing to share their initial findings to inform future research in this area.

Supporting young women with breast cancer

Twenty years ago, Dr. Ellen Warner attended an international symposium on young women with breast cancer. The event proved to be a turning point in the career of this dedicated medical oncologist, and in the lives of hundreds of patients at Sunnybrook and beyond.

Inspired by the urgent need, Dr. Warner co-founded PYNK: Program for Young Women with Breast Cancer, Canada’s first personalized support program for women aged 40 and younger with breast cancer. From that first spark of an idea in 2004, Sunnybrook’s PYNK has grown into Canada’s leading clinical, research and educational program of its kind.

Since enrolling our first patient in February 2008, more than 700 young women have received the personalized support, resources and specialist care they need, delivered by a compassionate, multidisciplinary team, informed by groundbreaking research and supported entirely by donors like you.

Dr. Warner, Physician Assistant Sandy Vuong, and the PYNK team celebrated 20 years of trailblazing care, research and education with a special poster presentation at the December 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the same conference that inspired the program.

Following Dr. Warner’s retirement in August 2025, Dr. Jennifer Leigh was appointed as the new director of PYNK, having previously worked with the program at Mount Sinai Hospital.